Law Officers Say Stronger Laws Could Reduce 'Near Misses'

September 18, 1988|By Kirsten Gallagher of The Sentinel Staff

Only a wire fence stood between Bob Gregory and the man in combat fatigues. The man held a .38-caliber revolver and had a .45-caliber automatic pistol strapped across his shoulder. Two Dobermen pinschers, trained to attack under gunfire, stood guard at his feet.

For one hour, the gunman, who had a history of mental troubles, held the Seminole County deputy sheriff hostage.

''I kept asking him to put his gun down, and he said, 'I'm going to kill you now,' '' said Gregory, who had responded to a domestic problem that evening in 1977. ''He kept asking me for my gun. I said, 'If you want to kill me, you're not going to kill me with my own gun.'

''If I would have drawn my gun,'' Gregory said, ''he could have shot me.'' An Altamonte Springs police officer finally got the gunman to surrender. Deputies later found an arsenal of automatic weapons in his home.

Like Gregory, 41, now an Orlando police detective, other law enforcement officers who answered an Orlando Sentinel survey about Florida's gun laws remember the horror of staring at the wrong end of a barrel.

Last year, 327 officers in Florida were assaulted with firearms. Seven of nine officers killed on duty were shot -- more than in any state except New York. This year five officers in Florida have been shot and killed.

Most of the officers who commented in the Sentinel survey said Florida's gun laws increase the likelihood of violent encounters on the job, although some blamed the danger of their jobs more on the state's multibillion-dollar drug trade, illegal weapons and an ill-equipped judicial system.

Phillip Pitman, an Orange County deputy sheriff, is one who feels that stronger laws are needed to make his job safer. An experience 5 1/2 years ago did nothing to change his mind.

Pitman remembers the screaming woman hanging onto his legs in her yard near South Orange Blossom Trail. A few feet away, the woman's husband showered her, Pitman and his colleague with bullets from a .38-caliber semi-automatic pistol.

''He came out the back door, looking for her,'' Pitman said. ''We were between two trees, and he managed to get eight rounds in a 4-foot circle. He was pretty much on target.''

One bullet hit Deputy Ken Mohler in the leg. Pitman then fired his shotgun three times, killing the gunman. He had no choice.

''It was such an obvious, clean shooting, where you had no choice, where your partner was shot,'' said Pitman, 35, now a sheriff's detective sergeant. Bob Cox tried not to shoot. In 1986, the Seminole County deputy sheriff responded to the home of a psychiatrist who had been threatened by a patient. When he got to the house, a woman stood outside.

'' 'Can I help you?,' '' Cox recalled her asking. ''She pulled out a .22- caliber automatic pistol pointed about 10 feet from me. She said she wanted me out of there.''

As Cox walked around his car, the woman shot one round at him with the gun she bought at a discount at the Wal-Mart where she worked. She missed. She tried to fire another round. The trigger jammed. Cox drew his gun and ordered her to drop the gun, which she did.

''Of course, you're upset and angry because she tried to shoot me,'' Cox, 26, said. ''But all I was thinking was to try not to shoot her.''

Several charges were dropped, and she underwent court-ordered psychiatric care. A year later, Cox was called to the same doctor's home. The woman was sitting in her car and fled when she recognized Cox. After a chase, Cox and his colleagues found another .22-caliber pistol. She had bought the gun at a department store and bought ammunition just minutes before driving to the physician's home.

Federal law requires that a gun owner not have a history of mental illness. But no one is required to check that before a customer buys a gun.

Many officers have not found themselves under gunfire, but they regularly confront people who could wield guns. Good judgment and training usually is their best weapon.

Tim Strickland works the midnight shift with the Florida Highway Patrol. The streets he drives often are unlit and deserted. Especially daunting are vans and cars with tinted windows that hide the people inside.

About a year ago, Strickland pulled over a car of three teen-agers because their Volkswagen had no bumper. Shining his flashlight inside the car, he spotted a rifle propped against the driver's seat. Two other rifles were in the back seat.

The driver turned out to be more frightened of Strickland than the trooper was of him and his friends. But Strickland remained wary, making sure the passengers stayed inside and the driver didn't return to his car as he wrote the ticket.

''You just don't ever let your guard down,'' said Strickland, 28. ''It causes you to handle more stress. You always think about the worst.''

Orange County Deputy John Moch is more alert than ever. Moch stopped two 13-year-old boys at 1:15 a.m. in a residential neighborhood in south Orange County last month. One boy pulled out what Moch thought was a razor blade or a box opener.

The deputy drew his gun and ordered the boy to drop his weapon. Not until the deputy had handcuffed the teen-ager did he notice that the boy was holding a .22-caliber handgun with nine rounds. Moch said the boy told him he would have shot him but didn't have enough time to prepare after Moch drew his pistol.

Moch, 36, who called the Sentinel about the incident while answering his gun-control survey, said he always been ''an aggressive officer and safety conscious.'' But now he has to worry about children, too.

''It's proven with this 13 year-old boy,'' he said, ''that anyone who wants a gun can get one.''